Illiberal & Undemocratic

The LibDems, if you go by their party name, are supposed to stand for liberalism and democracy, yet they seem to be behaving in an illiberal and undemocratic manner.

The problem with the LibDems is that they have become so convinced that they in the right about everything that they are willing to ride roughshod over public opinion, logic and the democratic process to attain their goals, rather than taking the proper route of convincing others that they are correct and having their ideas properly evaluated and, if necessary, changing them. Unfortunately, following the failure of the AV Referencum to achieve the ends he wished, it seems that Cleeg is hardly willing to entrust his vision to voters who have proven they have a mind of their own. So, don’t expect to see referenda on the EU or Lords Reform any time soon (assuming those issues escape the mire of Conservative and Coalition infighting).

Unfortunately, the LibDems demand reform whilst offering worse alternatives to the status quo. In fact, anyone wanting to keep Britain in the state it is in now couldn’t do better than Clegg and his chums for making change unpalatable. And, to add icing to the cake, they threaten to derail boundary changes to punish the Tories if they don’t get their way – boundary changes which would make the Commons reflect the wishes of the electorate more accurately than at present. So, they’ll scupper reform that doesn’t suit them if they don’t get the reform that does? That’s not reform, that’s naked self-interest. No wonder they made the ridiculous proposition of an upper house with firteen year terms for members! Although their decline in popularity means they might not get the numbers they had hoped for, they clearly hope that any who get elected would ride-out the collapse of their support base to keep their idiocy alive.

Sadly, the LibDems have gone a long way from their roots and no longer really represent Liberalism. It’s difficult to tell what they represent any more, if, indeed, they represent anything other than pure self-interest. With Blair wanting to make a return to politics, he might find that his brand of out-of-touch-with-reality, naked self-interest would be a better fit with the LibDems than a Labout Party that does, at least, boast one or two members with a sense of democratic decency.

Whether we will ever get the reform that is needed to restore British democracy remains to be seen, but it is increasingly clear that it will not come from the LibDems, who offer only further corruption and chaos with their foolish ideas.